Prevention Matters

A San Francisco program that turns unused roadway areas into parks was named Partnership for Prevention's "Best Prevention Idea of the Week," while federal officials’ delay in informing schools about potentially tainted food was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters, the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.


BEST

SF PROGRAM TRANSFORMS PAVEMENT INTO PARKS
http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/pavement-to-parks/?emc=eta1

San Francisco’s “Pavement to Parks” program creates green spaces where people can walk and be active by reclaiming excess roadway, through the use of simple and low-cost design interventions. A pro bono designer works on each park (there are 12 scheduled to be finished through 2010; three have just been completed) with the mandate of using materials the city already has to maximize greenery and “transform a sea of asphalt.”

WORST

U.S. DELAYED TELLING SCHOOLS ABOUT FOOD RECALLS
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32989396/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/?ocid=twitter/from/ET

The federal government failed to inform schools of recalls of suspected tainted food products, potentially putting millions of schoolchildren at risk of food poisoning over the last two years, a government investigation has concluded. The recalled foods included salmonella-tainted peanut products linked to the deaths of at least nine people, said the report, which was completed last month by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

A Vermont congressman’s proposal to measure Medicare health outcomes on the value of the services provided rather than the volume was named Partnership for Prevention's "Best Prevention Idea of the Week," while the recent trend of American food processors to shift responsibility for food safety to consumers was named the "Worst Prevention Idea of the week."

The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters, the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.


BEST

Congressman proposes Medicare reimbursement based on value, not volume, of care

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090519/NEWS03/90518029/-1/NEWS05

U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., says he plans to introduce a bill that would allow for an alternative, voluntary payment system under Medicare that allowed doctors to create accountable care organizations that measure health outcomes and receive reimbursement based on the value rather than the volume of the care they deliver. Welch’s proposal is based on research at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice that suggests payment should be based on the value of the health care, not the volume of patients seen and procedures carried out.


WORST

Food companies shift the onus for safety to consumers

http://www.thespec.com/News/article/566815

The New York Times News Service’s Michael Moss reports that corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are increasingly shifting responsibility for the safety of their products to the consumer because they are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients.

President Obama has proposed adding 404 full-time staff members to work on food inspection at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). David W.K. Acheson, associate commissioner for foods, told a congressional committee that it would be a “retrograde step for public health” if food inspection responsibility was removed from the FDA. Consumer advocacy groups long have complained that federal government attempts to track and regulate food safety are lacking and dispersed among too many agencies, including both the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).